


The Runaways

by lucifersbaby



Category: Original Work
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, OC, Own Character, Teen Pregnancy, teen runaway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:02:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28220607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucifersbaby/pseuds/lucifersbaby
Summary: Hazels home life isn't perfect... in fact it's far from it. All she has is her best friend, high school dropout Kai. After a while, she can't take it anymore and leaves in search of a better life with him.
Relationships: Hazel/Jake, Hazel/Marina, Kai/Alex





	The Runaways

**Author's Note:**

> TRIGGER WARNING - IMPLIED AND WRITTEN CHILD ABUSE AND SELF HARM. DO NOT READ IF THIS WILL UPSET YOU.
> 
> This is my first story I'm actually publishing, so go easy!

“Hazel, look up for me. You’re in class, not in bed”  
She wearily raised her head, pushing her brown curls off her face.  
“Miss, I think I need the nurse. I’m burning up and-” Hazel was cut off by the teachers exasperated sigh and casual gesture towards the door, at which she pushed her chair out with a deafening screech on the floor and slung her bag over her shoulder.  
“Goth!” The shout came from the back of the class. She flipped the voice off casually and slammed the door shut on her way out, ignoring her teachers' shouts to ‘watch her profanity!’  
It was then that she let go of the sob that had been brewing in her chest. Frantically pulling out her phone she dialled the only number she knew.  
“Kai speaking, whoever this is better have a hella good excuse for calling me because i’m about to thrash these assholes in Mario Kart.”  
“Kai, it’s Hazel.” She said, her voice quiet.  
“Hey dude! How’s staying in school going?” He replied.  
“Something happened again, I need to come over.” She said, reaching the stairs and taking a moment to lean on the banister, breathing shakily.  
“Shit Hazel, how many times I gotta tell you? Be careful with him.”  
“I know, I’m sorry. Can I come over now?”  
“Yeah, course you can. Key’s under the mat. I love you.”  
“I love you too Kai.” She said, hearing a sigh on the end of the line before it went dead. Tucking her phone into her pocket and running a hand over her face she started down the stairs, stumbling through a haze of tears. Somehow she managed to find her way out onto the busy main road, skipping the school signout bullshit and taking a second to double over, holding her stomach tight. Straightening up, she headed for the alley across from the school doors.  
It was dark, dirty too, and somehow the sunlight never quite made it to the edges of the overfilled bins lining the streets. Ignoring the questionable brown fluid leaking out of the drains, she stepped over the puddle and approached a dirty brown door with a dim flickering light hanging by a wire above it. She pressed a nameless buzzer, waited a moment as she yet again ran a hand over her face, then the door gave a click and she pushed it open. Stepping into the dingy corridor, she grimaced at the several bugs swarming the small light sat upon the wall that lit the windowless stairwell. She headed up the stairs two at a time to reach the second floor, and spotted the familia bright green door that was almost its own light amongst the dark hallway. She leaned down and pushed the mat aside to grab the small silver key taped to the floor.  
Pushing open the door, she stepped into the unusually well kept apartment. The floors were always shining, and carefully chosen band posters dotted the clean white walls. She kicked off her beaten Vans and headed to the living room, the layout of the house practically muscle memory.  
“Hey bro.” She said as she slung herself into a beanbag next to Kai, who was playing an aggressive game of Mario Kart Wii. He crashed helplessly into the barrier and threw the controller against the wall with a shout before running a hand through his neon green hair that hung in curtains beside his pale face.  
“You made me lose against fucking Princess Peach. That’s like, more painful than when Ethan dumped me.” He turned around as she burst out laughing.  
“You’re telling me you’re going to order six pizzas and eat them all because you lost against Peach?” Said Hazel with a grin. He scowled.  
“We agreed we wouldn’t mention that.” He glanced at her face and his face became concerned.  
“You’ve been crying love, what’s he done now?” He said as he brushed her curls off her face. She shuffled on her beanbag, picking at her black painted nails.  
“George, he um… he hit me again last night.” She said, a tear rolling down her face. “We went to the cinema and afterwards I said I wished I could’ve brought a friend because I feel like I never see you and Ellie anymore. He said I should be more grateful he takes me out when he does.” Looking up, Hazel wiped her cheeks and sniffed. “He’s still mad about Jake, he says he’s gotten over me dating someone but he’s still hurting me.”  
Kai’s gaze darkened and he took Hazel’s hands in his.  
“Hazel honey, that bastard is worthless, and you are worth everything. If I was straight I would date you just to get you out of there. You don’t deserve anything he does to you okay? I can’t believe he would adopt you just to do this to you… it's barbaric.” He looked her in the eyes and gave her hands a squeeze. “One day, I promise, I’ll get you out of that house.”  
Hazel laughed sadly, putting her hands on his shoulders.  
“Kai, I love you, but you’re a 19 year old high school dropout who barely has enough money to keep himself going in a shitty apartment that has occasional electricity. I’m 16 now, if i get a job soon maybe I can leave for university.” She smiled and stood up shakily. “Wanna grab some food from the corner shop?” She said, but he didn’t stand up.  
“Kai-?”  
“Let’s leave this shithole Hazel.” He said, finally standing and this time grabbing her shoulders.  
“Kai what are you on about…” His grin grew wide.  
“We could leave. I have just enough to get us two train tickets, we could stay with Jake until we get settled and then find a cheap apartment somewhere, go to college and live our lives. Please. Leave with me.” She sighed and pushed his hands off her.  
“That would never work. He’d find me, and then I'd be dead meat. Can we please just grab food?” His face grew stony and she knew he was in a mood that wouldn’t budge.  
“Fine. I’ll see you later then.” Without waiting for a response, she stormed out the apartment, pulling her shoes on as she went and clattered noisily down the stairwell and out of the alley. She leaned against a bus stop and sobbed noisily. Kai was all she had, now she was left skiving school with no safe place to go to. She checked her watch, still an hour before she could even consider going home to face George. He had been passed out on the couch drunk when she left in the morning, so she hadn’t faced the aftermath of her locking herself in the bathroom overnight to escape his temper.  
He was going to be furious.

After a solid ten minute sob she accepted that, in the middle of December, there was nowhere else to go except home. Bunching her fists in anger she stuck her arm out for the bus. She took the seat right at the back and let the tears slowly stream down her face. A sharp pain exploded along her arm, and she realised she had started picking at healing scabs without realising. Pulling up her sleeve she ran her fingers along the now bleeding lines across her arm, which were littered over old scars. She shut her eyes and let out a sigh.  
Hazel hated herself for cutting. George told her that it made her weak, that what he put her through should be pain enough. Yet she still found it the only way to express that anger she seemed to always have brewing inside her chest. The scars weren’t only on her arms, they flowed across her tanned skin on her thighs, stomach and even on a couple desperate occasions, her chest. She pulled down her sleeve and pressed it down onto the cuts trying to stop the bleeding before she got off the bus. Gritting her teeth against the pain she tried to ignore the searing sensation as she stepped off the bus into the cold winter air.  
Hazels neighbourhood was, well, not exactly the best. Being out after dark wasn’t a great idea and most people in the city knew of the drug dealers that roamed her local streets. Keeping her hood up and head down, she marched through the cold streets with fake confidence towards her block of flats. She fished her keys out of her pocket and turned the lock, stepping into the stairwell that wasn’t kept much better than Kai’s.  
As she reached her door, her heart was pounding in her throat. With her shaking hands, it took her three tries to get the key in the lock. She pushed open the creaking door and took a tentative step inside. The grubby grey carpet greeted her, as did the peeling, stained wallpaper.  
“Who the hell is that!” Came a shout from the living room.  
“It’s me Ge- Dad, it’s Hazel.”  
A large, balding man lumbered through the doorway and stood with a gaze that could melt steel staring at her. She curled into herself under that stare.  
“And why the fuck do you think you’re home this early?” He said, stepping towards her until she was backed against the front door.  
“I-I um… I felt sick and the nurse wasn’t in so I-”  
Her sentence was cut off by a sharp slap to her face, and she fell to the ground clutching her face as silent tears ran down her cheeks. He grabbed her arm viciously and pulled her to her feet. She screamed as he ripped her sleeve down.  
“Fucking cutting yourself again? You want pain, I'll give you it you little bitch.”  
He dragged her through to the living room, where beer cans and empty wrappers lay everywhere.  
“Last night's little fiasco you pulled in the bathroom didn’t sit right with me, young lady. You’ll regret that in a few hours.”  
As she was thrown against the coffee table, she shook with the knowledge that she was in for a painful night.


End file.
